Sang Ho Chung

Esterification of used vegetable oils using the heterogeneous WO3/ZrO2 catalyst for production of biodiesel

Tungsten oxide zirconia, sulfated zirconia and Amberlyst-15 were examined as a catalyst for a conversion of used vegetable oils (VOs) to fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). Among them, tungsten oxide zirconia was a promising heterogeneous catalyst for the production of biodiesel fuels from used VOs because of high activity in the conversion over 93% and no leaching WO(3) in the esterification reaction. The reaction conditions were optimized. A study for optimizing the reaction parameters such as the reaction temperature, stirring speed, WO(3) loading over ZrO(2) and reaction time, was carried out. The catalyst was characterized by BET, XRD, FT-IR, and NH(3)-TPD. With increasing WO(3) loading over ZrO(2), the triclinic phase of WO(3) increased and the tetragonal phase of zirconia was clearly generated. The highest acid strength of 20 wt% tungsten oxide zirconia catalyst was confirmed by NH(3)-TPD analysis and the result was correlated to the highest catalytic activity of the esterification reaction.

Tungsten oxide zirconia as solid superacid catalyst for esterification of waste acid oil (dark oil)

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel which can be produced through an esterification reaction. The cost of feedstock which resulted in that of biodiesel is a large problem to be resolved. Dark oil from industrial process can be a better alternative for biodiesel production because of its low price. In spite of this, the study of biodiesel production using the dark oil has not been reported. This study provides technical information and catalytic properties on this system. Among the several catalysts, WO(3)/ZrO(2) catalyst was the most effective catalyst in the esterification of the dark oil to fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). The catalytic reaction parameters were optimized that 20 wt.% WO(3)/ZrO(2) has a high FFA conversion of 96% at 150 degrees C, 0.4 g/ml (oil), 1:9 (oil to alcohol, molar ratio) and 2h reaction time. The physical and chemical properties of the catalyst were characterized by XRD, Raman spectrometer, BET and NH(3)-TPD.

The synthesis of silica and silica-ceria, core-shell nanoparticles in a water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsion composed of heptane and water with the binary surfactants AOT and NP-5

In this study, a strategy was developed for the synthesis of nano-sized, silica-ceria, core-shell composites in a water-oil (W/O) microemulsion consisting of water, heptane and the binary surfactants AOT (sulfosuccinic acid bis (2-ethylhexyl) ester sodium salt) and NP-5 (polyoxyethylene (5) nonylphenyl ether). The core-shell, silica-ceria particles were prepared in a stepwise procedure: (1) the precipitation of the core-silica particles in a W/O microemulsion and (2) the surface precipitation of ceria on the core silica dispersed over the microemulsion. The composition of the binary surfactant greatly influenced the growth rate of the core-silica particles. The virial coefficient of diffusion was utilized to estimate the effect of the surfactant composition on the degree of intermicellar interaction that is important for the growth rate of the silica along with the flexibility of the micellar interface and the structure of the water domain. The deposition of the ceria on the core silica was not straightforward because the bulk and surface precipitation competed with each other. The promotion of surface precipitation was attempted by: (1) chemically modifying the silica surface with an organoamine group and (2) slowing down the precipitation rate of the ceria in a semi-batch operation. These attempts successfully produced the nano-sized silica-ceria, core-shell particles, which were evidenced through the TEM, XPS and zeta potential analysis.

Oxidation of ammonia to nitrogen over Pt/Fe/ZSM5 catalyst: Influence of catalyst support on the low temperature activity

In this study, Pt/Fe/ZSM5 catalysts were applied to oxidation of ammonia, where the catalysts showed good low-temperature activity (≤ 200°C) for converting ammonia into nitrogen. With 1.5% Pt/0.5% Fe/ZSM5 catalyst, we could obtain 81% NH(3) conversion and 93% N(2) selectivity at 175°C at the short contact-time of w/f=0.00012 g min/mL. Through the characterization studies using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray spectroscopies (XRD, XPS), we could find that the active species was collaborating Pt/Fe species, which structure and activity were largely influenced by support material - in a positive way by ZSM5, rather than by Al(2)O(3) and SiO(2). When using ZSM5 as the support material, Pt was highly dispersed exclusively on the Fe oxide, and the valence state and dispersion of Pt changed according to Fe loading amount.